The Altar Experience Carries The Fire With Bishop David Ray

Jeremiah chapter 20 begins with Pashur, a governor in the house of the Lord, holding a title but not walking in the divine presence of God. Pashur had religion, position, and connection with people, but the true living God shook him through the words of Jeremiah. The word of God, when proclaimed with authority, shakes up the religious establishment, and that shaking brought abuse against the man of God.

Pashur struck Jeremiah, arrested him, whipped him, and put him in stocks overnight. Jeremiah had his head, arms, and legs locked up because judgment from God had been spoken over the house of God. The religious heart did not like that word, because judgment exposes what titles can hide. The hardest hurt came from church people, because the wound came from the very place where help and truth should have been found.

Jeremiah endured that humiliation because his connection with God came through the altar. The altar was not treated as a little moment in a service, but as the place where a person and God can talk. The altar could be at the front, in a chair, or in a private home, because the real issue was an altar relationship with God. That relationship changes the atmosphere, gives a running place, refreshes, restores, and keeps a child of God from denying the Lord when the stocks get tight.

Jeremiah cried out in verse 7 that God had overpowered him and allowed him to be mocked every day. Jeremiah admitted that everyone laughed at him, yet the word still burst out of him. Violence and destruction had to be shouted because the word of God was in him and could not be held back. When Jeremiah tried to stay quiet, the word burned in his heart like a fire, like fire in his bones, until holding it in wore him out.

The fire of God was not just for Jeremiah and not just for a preacher. The fire belonged to every man, woman, boy, and girl who has had a true altar experience with God. That fire in the belly keeps a child of God talking about Jesus, even when old friends watch for a fatal slip and enemies wait for revenge. The Lord stands beside His servant like a great warrior, and the child of God stands as a warrior too, different, unique, and not silent.

Pashurs will still come. Religious people with titles will still try to shut down the fire. But the altar experience keeps the fire hot, keeps the heart submitted, and keeps the child of God standing in Jesus’ army.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Titles cannot replace God's presence. Pashur had a position in the house of the Lord, but the title did not mean that the divine presence of God was ruling his life. Religious authority without a living relationship can become cruel, even toward the very word God sends. The house of God becomes dangerous when position is honored more than obedience. [01:39]
• 2. The altar becomes the running place. The altar is not only a location at the front of a building, but the place where the heart meets God honestly. An altar relationship gives a child of God somewhere to run when laughter, mockery, and abuse come. The atmosphere changes when the soul learns to keep bringing everything back to God. [08:32]
• 3. God's word burns past shame. Jeremiah could not keep silent because the word burned in his heart like fire in his bones. Shame, laughter, and being made a household joke did not remove that fire. A real altar experience does not make a person loud for attention, but it does make silence impossible when God has spoken. [10:27]
• 4. Mocked saints still stand as warriors. Jeremiah heard rumors, threats, and the voice of old friends waiting for him to slip. Yet the Lord stood beside him like a great warrior. A child of God is not defined by the crowd’s laughter, but by the Warrior standing beside him. [16:37]
• 5. Pashurs will not stop the fire. Religious opposition will keep coming, and some of it will carry titles. The fire in the belly must stay hotter than the pressure to quit, hide, or please people. The altar keeps the child of God in Jesus’ army when Pashurs try to shut the mouth God has opened.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [00:15] - Pashur’s Title In God’s House
• [01:00] - God’s Word Shakes Religion
• [02:13] - Jeremiah Is Abused For Truth
• [03:03] - Relationship With God, Not People
• [04:24] - Judgment Brings Religious Opposition
• [05:55] - Jeremiah’s Connection Through The Altar
• [07:57] - An Altar Relationship Changes Everything
• [09:17] - Jeremiah Mocked For Speaking
• [10:27] - Fire In The Bones
• [12:15] - Rekindling The Altar Experience
• [13:43] - Keep The Fire In The Belly
• [16:09] - Friends Waiting For A Slip
• [16:37] - The Lord Stands Like A Warrior
• [21:04] - Pashurs Will Still Come

Bible Reading

Jeremiah 20:1-11
“Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the LORD. The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, ‘The LORD does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror On Every Side. For thus says the LORD: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword. Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon. And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.’ O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me. For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, ‘Violence and destruction!’ For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,’ there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! ‘Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’ say all my close friends, watching for my fall. ‘Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him.’ But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.” [00:00]

Observation questions

1. What does this passage show about Pashhur’s position in the house of the Lord, and what actions did he take against Jeremiah? [01:39]
2. What details in the passage show how public and painful Jeremiah’s humiliation was?
3. In verses 7-9, what words does Jeremiah use to describe how people treated him and what God’s word felt like inside him? [10:27]
4. In verse 10, who was watching for Jeremiah’s fall, and what were they hoping would happen to him? [16:09]

Interpretation questions

1. Pashhur had a title in God’s house, yet he opposed the word of God. What does that reveal about the danger of having religious position without a real relationship with God? [03:03]
2. Jeremiah kept speaking even after mocking and abuse. What does the “fire in his bones” seem to say about what happens when God’s word truly takes hold of a person? [10:45]
3. Jeremiah brought his pain to God instead of hiding it. What does that suggest about the kind of honesty God welcomes from His people in hard seasons? [09:25]
4. The Lord is described as standing beside Jeremiah like a great warrior. How would that truth have changed the way Jeremiah understood his suffering and opposition? [17:02]

Application questions

1. Titles cannot replace God’s presence. Where is the greater temptation right now: to look spiritual in front of people, or to stay close to God in private? What would honest repentance look like there? [01:48]
2. The altar becomes a running place when life gets tight. When pressure rises, where does the heart usually run first: to people, to distraction, to anger, or to God? What would it look like this week to rebuild that running place with God? [08:32]
3. The hardest hurt can come from religious people. Has there been a church hurt, disappointment, or betrayal that still affects the way trust works now? How can that wound be brought back to God without letting it turn into bitterness? [05:06]
4. God’s word burned in Jeremiah until silence wore him out. Is there an area where the Lord has been pressing something on the heart, but fear of people has kept it quiet? What makes obedience feel costly there? [11:30]
5. Old friends watched for Jeremiah’s fatal slip. Is there a place where being watched, judged, or misunderstood has made faithfulness harder? How can a person stay steady without becoming defensive or withdrawn? [16:14]
6. The fire of God is not only for a preacher, but for every believer. What helps keep that fire alive in daily life, and what has been cooling it off lately? [14:46]
7. The Lord stands beside His people like a warrior. What situation right now most needs to be faced with that confidence? How might the week look different if that battle is entered as someone standing with God instead of standing alone? [17:27]